Origin and history of poesy

"one endowed with the gift and power of imaginative invention and creation, attended by corresponding eloquence of expression, commonly but not necessarily in a metrical form" [Century Dictionary, 1895], early 14c., "a poet, an author of metrical compositions; one skilled in the art of making poetry; a singer" (c. 1200 as a surname), from Old French poete (12c., Modern French poète) and directly from Latin poeta "a poet," from Greek poētēs "maker, author, poet," variant of poiētēs, from poein, poiein "to make, create, compose."

This is reconstructed [Watkins] to be from PIE *kwoiwo- "making," from root *kwei- "to pile up, build, make" (source also of Sanskrit cinoti "heaping up, piling up," Old Church Slavonic činu "act, deed, order").

A POET is as much to say as a maker. And our English name well comformes with the Greeke word : for of [poiein] to make, they call a maker Poeta. [Puttenham, "Arte of English Poesie," 1589]

It isn't what [a poet] says that counts as a work of art, it's what he makes, with such intensity of perception that it lives with an intrinsic movement of its own to verify its authenticity. [William Carlos Williams, 1944]

It replaced Old English scop (which survives in scoff). It was used in 14c., as in classical languages, in reference to all writers or composers of works of literature. In 16c.-17c. often Englished as maker.

Poète maudit, "a poet insufficiently appreciated by his contemporaries," literally "cursed poet," is attested by 1930, from French (1884, Verlaine). For poet laureate see laureate.

1540s, "written composition in metrical form, a composition arranged in verses or measures" (replacing poesy in this sense), from French poème (14c.), from Latin poema "composition in verse, poetry," from Greek poēma "fiction, poetical work," literally "thing made or created," early variant of poiēma, from poein, poiein, "to make or compose" (see poet).

From 1580s as "written composition, whether in verse or not, characterized by imaginative beauty in thought or language." Spelling pome, representing an ignorant pronunciation, is attested from 1856.

also posey, 1530s, "short poetical motto engraved on the inner surface of a ring," an alteration of poesy "poetry; a passage of poetry," which is recorded in this sense from early 15c. Meaning "flower; bunch of flowers, bouquet" is recorded by 1570s, from notion of the language of flowers or a custom of sending verses with flowers as gifts. The original thing later was a posy-ring (by 1833).